The $13 billion Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s costliest warship, was delivered last year without elevators needed to lift bombs from below deck magazines for loading on fighter jets.

Previously undisclosed problems with the 11 elevators for the ship built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. add to long-standing reliability and technical problems with two other core systems -- the electromagnetic system to launch planes and the arresting gear to catch them when they land.

Webmaster's Commentary:

ARE YOU FLIPPING KIDDING ME?!?

Why were no phased engineering checks being done by the Navy, before they took delivery of a $13 billion dollar aircraft carrier that doesn't work?!?!?

And why aren't Mike Petters, Andy Green, and Kris Kastner of Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc getting grilled by Congress, in open session, about why their products have become so damned unreliable, that our military professionals' lives are being threatened by this avalanche of both extraordinarily bad decisions, and massive operational defects?!?